You Can't Escape Christmas
by Serena Thorn
Summary: Just when Claire tries to escape Christmas she discovers that sometimes the best presents don’t come wrapped in pretty little boxes.


Title: You Can't Escape Christmas  
Rating: PG  
Summary: Just when Claire tries to escape Christmas she discovers that sometimes the best presents don't come wrapped in pretty little boxes  
Spoilers: None  
Disclaimer: Heroes is not owned by me, but by Tim Kring. I'm simply borrowing these characters for non-profit entertainment.

* * *

It was Christmas and Claire was bored out of her mind. She had been given two choices: Spend Christmas with her adoptive parents and brother or at the Petrelli mansion with Angela and Peter.

She had chosen the former, though still found herself taking the car and going to a movie. After all it's not like anywhere else was open on this the supposed holiest of days.

The theater was packed and for once she was thankful to be able to lose herself in the crowd. Of course seeing so many happy, smiling families just made her want to punch someone. Maybe to some she had the perfect life, the perfect family, maybe even the perfect Christmas. But no. Certainly not today. She hated feeling so alone but having gone to the movies didn't change anything. She felt just alone when she was surrounded by her supposed family. So many lies and betrayals tend to bring those feelings about.

The movie itself was some action schlock that had just come out. She might have liked it if she had been paying attention, but envy had begun to claim her every time someone flipped their cell phone open or leaned over to talk to the person they were with. Even watching people filing in was almost enough to send her over the edge. They all had someone with them, they all seemed happy. She was the only one there by herself.

It was on her way out once the movie was over that it hit her again. That pang of loneliness, that want to have someone, nearly anyone, with her. Someone who actually cared that was and not just for their own personal agendas. Her gaze fell on a seemingly twenty-something year old man talking to a woman who looked somewhere between her age and his. They were standing just in front of the exit doors, no one else around really aside from those who had chosen to follow her out to the parking lot through those same doors.

Maybe she wouldn't have paid much attention to them but she thought she heard the man say that he thought the girl was drunk. He'd spoken softly and seemed concerned. Yet all she could think was how a drink might have done her some good. Well if she had the capability to catch a buzz for under $100 at least.

That pang of envy and loneliness hit her again as she turned her head once more as she headed out through the doors. It was then she saw the man kissing the woman he had been talking to. Her face in his hands, his eyes closed. The fact she was still surrounded by happy families who had claimed they were only at the movies because nothing else was open did nothing to lessen her current hatred of Christmas.

"And here I thought Scrooge was supposed to be an embittered old man, not a sexy little cheerleader," she heard a dark yet soft and familiar voice speak as she went to unlock her car door.

"What do you want now?" she sighed, not even bothering to look back at him. After all her day was getting so much better.

"Just to give you a Christmas present," Sylar answered nonchalantly.

"Your vow that you'll never again try to kill me or my family?" she snapped.

He smiled. "Now where would the fun in that be? Besides you know as well as I do your father deserves it."

"Look, just give me whatever the damn present is and leave me alone. It's Christmas, if there's one day I shouldn't have to put up with you it's today," she said as she finally turned to face him.

He had never realized how beautiful she was when she was angry, feisty. Got the wheels of his mind turning in all kinds of fun ways. What he wouldn't give in that moment to lift her up onto the car's hood and prove to the world that she was his. No, he'd save that for another day. In the meantime -

"Well if you insist," he smiled as he brought a hand up to cup her face and leaned in to kiss her.

Claire groaned out in surprise and protest, but Sylar only took that as an invitation to deepen their kiss. She put her hands to his chest, trying to force him away but that did nothing to dissuade him. And then her mind just had to go and turn on her. He really was a damn good kisser! And soon she was forgetting all about her struggles as she rose up to kiss him back with added fervor

She hated to admit it but this had been her biggest Christmas wish. To share today with someone who wasn't her father or grandmother, to be able to stop feeling so alone and actually feel wanted. She knew about Sylar's obsession with her. Really, who didn't at this point? She'd take it, not only because it was all she had but because of her own obsession with him.

Her whole body felt aflame despite the chill of the air as he pressed her into him, devouring her mouth as she fought to do the same with his. He never did like relinquishing control, she mused.

"How was that?" he panted when they finally parted for air, though still refusing to let her out of his hold just yet.

"What do you mean?" she asked, her heart still racing at everything he'd awakened within her.

"Do you finally feel less alone?" he smiled, letting her know he had heard her thoughts.

"That's what you wanted to give me for Christmas?" she asked, only just now realizing her hands were gripping his hips. Still she didn't take them back.

"No," he answered with a slight shake of his head. "It just happened to be Christmas that you asked for that and in the end I'm not sure anyone else could help you to feel less alone than me."

She knew he was right. Who else that she knew now would she still have even the slightest chance of seeing in a hundred years? And given this, today, she wasn't sure there was anyone else she would want to see then. Or even tonight for that matter despite the fact she had agreed to have Christmas dinner with her parents. It was still too soon for her to forgive them and ordinarily she would think it was too soon for her to forgive Sylar for all he had done to her, but then she knew the blame for that truly fell to her father. If not for him she never would have been attacked by Sylar or made to fear him. And now he had given her something she hadn't expected. A rare glimpse into a side of him that was, dare she say, human. Perhaps that was the true gift, to no longer see him as a monster and to know that he would be there when she needed him.

The End


End file.
